People occupying residences in areas subject to heavy rainfall or on land subject to periodic flooding remain on a constant vigil to detect rising water. And even people residing in homes erected on land having little likelihood of flooding are fearful of water accumulation in the basements thereof caused by heavy thunderstorms, leaking water mains, broken water pipes or backed-up sewers.
Regardless of whether the residences are located on flood land or on high ground, it is very difficult to obtain flood insurance covering the contents thereof. As a consequence, millions of dollars in uninsured, flood damaged property are lost every year. A rising water detector, placed above the normal water level of a river for regions prone to flooding, or placed in a sump-pump well for non-flood areas, would provide an early indication of rising waters.
It is accordingly one object of the present invention to provide an inexpensive and reliable alarm for alerting the occupants of buildings that water has risen to a preselected, danger level.
Smoke detecting and signalling devices have gained widespread acceptance and are now commonly installed in homes by safety conscious residents. Since these smoke detecting devices are manufactured with the components and circuitry necessary to produce an alarm signal, it would be advantageous to produce the flood alarm of the present invention so as to be connectable to existing smoke detecting devices.
It is therefore another object of the present invention to provide a flood water alarm adapted for operative connection to the terminals of the smoke sensor of a smoke detecting and signalling device.
These and other objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent from the following description of the preferred embodiments of the invention.